Students gathered around a table looking at building drawings

Winnipeg Free Press: Homebuilding lessons to help transform northern First Nation

July 18, 2024 —

University of Manitoba researchers are training post- secondary students to build environmentally friendly homes on their northern First Nation.

The Wikiwin Training Enterprise at York Factory First Nation received $8.4 million from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. to build a training facility in the small community. Students will be taught to build homes in a “future-proof way” that keeps climate change front of mind. Apprenticeship programs in carpentry, mechanics, culinary arts and other trades will be offered.

Chief Darryl Wastesicoot said it’s a chance for his community, which is struggling with a lack of housing and job opportunities, to take economic growth into its own hands.

To read the full story, please visit the Winnipeg Free Press.

Apprenticeship programs, Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, climate change, northern housing crisis, Wikiwin Training Enterprise

UM Researcher Wins Frontiers of Knowledge Award

Dr. Dorthe Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, along with four colleagues, won the prestigious BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Climate Change category. Dr. Dahl-Jensen and her team were lauded for their work on using ice cores in Greenland to track the relationship of greenhouse gas concentrations to changes in climate over the past 800,000 years.